melody bird
by The Soup
Summary: Skywarp learns his only weakness: the teleporting bird he has somehow befriended. Implied Starscream x Skywarp.


"melody bird"

--  
**T**hey wouldn't understand. Nobody would -- not even Thundercracker, who could be tolerant, if not kind as he usually was, about these things.

Things very typical of Skywarp.

He didn't expect them to understand. He wasn't going to tell them anyway -- even if they asked -- exactly why he'd adopted an extremely tall, mossy oak tree on a lush hill as his thinking spot; it was a place to be who he was, a refuge from the maddening world to process its happenings in peace.

The busy day of battles and raids was finally calming down now, and it was time for reflection.

As the sneakiest of the Decepticons, Skywarp was able to carefully sneak away from his squad without being seen. He mixed warping and flying to get to his destination, making sure no-one else would ever find him, certain they wouldn't but not promised.

Alone at last and at the place, Skywarp transformed, sleek-lined body parts gracefully flipping and folding forward until he stood of two feet. He looked to the horizon, optics taking in the glorious Earth sunset. He marveled at the splendor, the beauty, how the Earth sky changed painted hues from deep and perfect cerulean to scarlet, citrus, gold, and finally indigo. Dying sun rays, the last bits of dusk before night fall, spread gently and broke over the human city below the hill like gossamer strands of a spider web pulled apart.

Watching the city burn with a spectacular sundown, he decided it was safe.

"I'm here."

Seconds later, a mirage -- blurred smudges of matter and color -- zapped into existence before his optics, even as he looked towards the sunset; a magnificent teleport, if he did say so himself.

She had teleported from the highest branch of the aged oak, a tiny, organic, sapphire-hued songbird with a soft, twinkling voice like a human girl's music box. Her wings beat the air gently until she perched on Skywarp's massive, metallic finger, clenching the knuckle plates with sharp, minuscule claws.

She gazed at the Seeker with inquiring velvety black eyes. "Peep?" She seemed to be asking, blinking rapidly as her deep blue downy feathers fluffed and fluttered.

"It's okay, Gem," Skywarp said softly. "I won't let them hurt you."

"Peep...?" Gem titled her head, ruffling her feathers a bit more before sitting comfortably.

Skywarp smiled at his beloved organic companion. He couldn't remember how he had found her or how he had discovered that she could teleport just like him, but he knew that never loved anything else than his little songbird, his little Gem.

"You're my best friend." Skywarp pulled the bird closer to his optics, sentimentality seeping into his voice. "We'll always be together, forever and --"

"SKYWARP!" An angry, commanding voice roared from behind him, in the distance, sounding as though it were heading right this way.

"Oh, slag, it's Starscream!" Skywarp turned from watching his Air Commander hurtling towards him to find a place to hide Gem. He searched and searched, and could find no solution.

Gem blinked her sweet, soft eyes. With that she had evaporated and suddenly reappeared on the highest branch above.

Skywarp looked at the tree and saw where she had gone. "That's why I love you so much," he said, not really thinking that Starscream would hear him. "You're just like me." He smiled once more at Gem, his little teleporting bird of wonder.

"You better not be talking to me, Skywarp," Starscream sneered. He transformed and landed gracefully in front of him, the sunset's final rays casting an eerie glow to his face. "Especially if you're thinkin' I may feel the same. I swear I'll turn you into a scrap heap if --"

"Oh? What's that? You sayin' you love me?" Skywarp curiously regarded his fellow Seeker.

Starscream couldn't tell if 'Warp was being serious or not. It was more likely that he was just being his ditzy self.

"Of course not, bit-brain!" Starscream stomped over and thwapped Skywarp on the back of the head. "I can't even stand to look at you, much less _like_ you," he said seething, watching his wing-mate flinch away. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Skywarp shrugged. "Ahh, well, I dunno... have you ever been in love?" He asked truthfully, unable to realize his own innocent stupidity.

"What's your malfunction, Skywarp, your whole fraggin' processor?" Starscream gesticulated frantically, posing for dramatic effect. "Here I am, sent by Megatron to inform you of our next lousy mission, and then you go off and start professing your love for me. HA!"

A thoughtful look braced Starscream as he smirked and held his chin. "Although I can't say I blame you..."

Skywarp popped an optic ridge. "You gotta be kidding me. What makes you think you're so hot?" He wasn't remembering how many of the other 'Cons wanted to merge sparks with Starscream, and had even told him so.

"Hmmm, lemme think about it..." Starscream paused, before adding, "Maybe it's because... I am!"

"Okay, okay, so you're hot," Skywarp admitted, feeling like he had just told a big secret he was supposed to be keeping. "You still didn't answer my question, pretty wings." He glowered at the fellow Seeker heavily, unafraid of facing insubordination charges for challenging his superior.

"Of course not! I'm a Decepticon, not one of Prime's beloved flesh-lings," Starscream grandly stated. "I've got better things than to waste my energon reserves toying with non-existent emotions."

"They're not exactly non-existent, 'Screamer, and you know that."

Starscream stopped dead, now suddenly silenced. Skywarp continued before he could say something.

"And I think you're either the biggest pain in the diode about these kinds of things," he told him, "or you're deep in denial."

"Enough!" Starscream threw his hands over his audials, clenching his optics shut. "That's enough, I'll hear nothing more from that waste depository you call a mouth."

"But I'm just sayin', have you ever been in love, 'cause if you have or if you are then --"

"I said enough! How _dare_ you continue blabbing when I told you not to! UGH!" Starscream folded up his limbs and twisted around until he was his usual F-15 form. "Forget Megatron's mission, I'm leaving!" His jet thrusters charred the earth when he flew away as fast as he could from Skywarp and his tree on the hill, muttering angrily about morons and emotion simulators.

_Wonder what he's so fussy about? _Skywarp thought, smiling. _Sounds to me like he's in love -- he just don't wanna admit it._

Skywarp made sure Starscream was nothing but a speck on the otherside of the world before calling for her. "He's gone now, Gem."

The sapphire stone of a bird instantly materialized in a flash before him. Chirping a softly beautiful melody, Gem flew up and perched on Skywarp's shoulder guard.

Skywarp found himself smiling, as he usual would when around his Gem. Seemingly at peace with all the world. Nothing to worry about, nothing could go wrong. Since he was too big to scratch the feathers on her head while she sung, he reached over his shoulder to form a sort of "cage" around the bird -- affectionately of course.

Gem continued singing the melody Skywarp knew by heart, and he began humming right along with her tune, his core and casing vibrating in harmony.

**A** few days later, Starscream finally told Skywarp about their mission, seeming more impatient and agitated than normal when he came around him. No more than five minutes after he had taken off with Thundercracker at his flank did he forget like usual. And, like usual, Thundercracker had to remind him.

Skywarp's spark wasn't all in the mission, however; he just had to endure a little longer, and he'd be able to go back to his tree on the hill. Back to watch the sun bleed down the sky, back to his pretty little Gem --

"Hey, Skywarp."

-- She'd sing him their song, and he'd adore her even more --

"Yo, Skywarp, pay attention."

"Huh?" Skywarp woke up from his dreaming. For a second there he was startled to find himself in jet form soaring above a sparkling, lilting sea. Together he and Thundercracker were flying against a clear blue sky, the wind whistling around them, frost from the wind chill glittering on their wings.

"Your flight path's swerving," said Thundercracker, almost kindly. "Don't want to end up killing someone."

"Yeah, sorry, my bad." Skywarp didn't even notice he had used an Earth phrase. He grew silent once more, retreating further into his mind...

_Gem..._

"Hey, you're swerving again!

"Sorry!"

"**W**anna see something cool?"

"No."

"Well, I'm gonna show you anyway, Thundercracker," said Skywarp, standing near his tree and putting his hand on its ancient trunk. "I can trust you."

Thundercracker kept all comments to himself.

"Come on out. He's not gonna hurt ya."

Although intrigued, Thundercracker shifted his steps, arms folded over his chest plate. He intensely studied Skywarp, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. "Nothing's happening..."

"Just wait, she'll be here."

"She? You got yourself a femme?"

"Not exactly," Skywarp said quickly. "Gem, it's okay, he's a good guy."

"Uh, about that..." Thundercracker was about to make a joke about being the worse kind of Autobot when he saw the look on Skywarp's face. "What's --"

"Gem, don't you love me anymore?"

"What the slag--?" Thundercracker was even more confused.

Right then, a ginger-orange cat pranced by, past the 'Cons before heading to Gem's tree. Skywarp watched warily as the cat meowed and pawed at a patch of grass by the tree roots, picking something up in its mouth.

Terror struck Skywarp in the spark. "No.…" He didn't want to believe it, but there it was.

At the base of the tree, a few loose bloodied blue feathers lay in the grass.

Skywarp's processors clicked -- then, it happened.

Skywarp instantly snatched up the cat in his angry metal fist with a cry of despair. The cat yelped and screamed, thrashing about as Skywarp crushed its bones, until it dropped whatever was in its mouth.

His worst fear had been confirmed --

"Gem!" Skywarp scooped up the little bird from the ground, tossing the cat over the hill. "Gem, no..."

Thundercracker stood there, numb to the enormity of the situation. He was dumbfounded... Skywarp, supposedly a fierce warrior of Megatron, was -- he was almost certain -- _weeping_ over what appeared to be the crumpled, mangled body of a small blue bird.

"I don't get it," he said, scratching his temple. "It's just a bird."

"No," Skywarp said, emotion crackling in his words. "She was my... she..." He was so upset he couldn't finish the sentence, although his optics were dry.

"She what?" Thundercracker prompted.

Skywarp couldn't answer him. He just wanted to be alone to mourn the loss of his beloved songbird in peace. He opened his mouth to say so but nothing came out.

"What's going on here?" Starscream rushed into the conversation, having found the other Seekers via his global positioning system and coming to deliver news from Megatron about the mission's success.

When he landed and transformed, he looked firmly amused, smirking. "At it again, eh, Skywarp? Professing yet another doomed love affair?"

Thundercracker was even more confused, if possible. He looked at Starscream, then at Skywarp, and wondered if something else had been going on between them he didn't know about. He thought about asking, but didn't.

Skywarp didn't seem to notice the other Seekers' presence anymore. He sadly cradled Gem in his massively over-sized palm, the dead bird nothing but a blue stone against his purple paint job, while he softly and brokenly hummed her melody.

--  
;I own nothing but the words and situations I control; also the idea of the Gem, the teleporting bird.  
This is my first Transformers fic. Please review. Much appreciated.  
(This story was what I call Slash-but-not-Slash)  
Kind of a sad story, really.  
COMPLETE


End file.
